Thought it might be a good idea to have seperate threads thread devoted to articles about particular os's. In this way folk can have easy access to articles they may not normaly come across. Seeing as I use Arch that is what this thread is all about.

I saw this one yesterday. Good stuff. Found a tip (in the comments following the article) that helped me fix the brightness issue on a notebook of mine that's running CrunchBang: add acpi_backlight=vendor to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT line in /etc/default/grub.

abarbarian, on 12 November 2013 - 08:28 PM, said:

Arch Linux review

I like this one, too -- thanks! I'm very pleased with my ArchBang and Bridge Linux installations; I think they've been a great introduction to the Arch world. I can't call myself an Arch user because I haven't actually installed Arch, but ArchBang and Bridge use the Arch repos, kinda like Mepis uses the Debian repos. I think that ArchBang and Bridge are actually closer to Arch than Mepis is to Debian. The time I spent using Mepis turned out to be a major factor in making me a Debian user, so I figure I'll probably get around to installing Arch someday; just haven't found a reason to do it yet because things are going so well with these two Arch derivatives.

I can't see myself ever running only one distro, but my experiences with Archbang and Bridge have me feeling that if I ever get tired of following some of the other projects I'm following -- or if I ever find that I don't have time for running several different distros (I do hope that never happens because it's something that I really enjoy doing!) -- the ideal set-up for me would be a Debian Stable and Arch dual-boot. Perfect combination of solid/stable and rolling-release/cutting edge, in my view.

From the article:

Quote

No preferred GUI

Arch Linux does not suggest the use of any Desktop or window manager like Gnome or KDE over any other, so it is fully up to the user the choice of what to install and use.

There's been a lot of talk again recently about Debian switching from GNOME to Xfce for their "default" desktop environment. I like the "no preferred GUI" approach that Arch takes, and I think it would be a good approach for Debian as well, but in practice, it's kinda like that already with Debian because you can either choose an installation image that comes with one or another environment, or else install Debian without a DE/WM and then add one of your choosing.

I very much enjoy using KDE and GNOME Shell (and also Unity!) (Shhh!!!), but to me, Xfce and Openbox are great choices for Debian and Arch. I feel like either of those two environments fits well with what those two distros are all about.

For example, I think that running Xfce or Openbox with Arch would make things easier than running KDE or GNOME; I've seen the massive KDE upgrades that come down the pipe with Sabayon and Chakra, two other rolling/release distros that stay kinda close to the cutting edge.

How To Use Yaourt to Easily Download Arch Linux Community Packages (2013)

I do not really want to fill up these threads with "How To" articles as I feel that there are already plenty of sites that service that need. Theses threads are more for user experience articles or articles showing how the os's have been used in outstanding and unusual circumstances and articles of interest centered around the particular os.
However the above though sounding like and indeed it is a "How To" article combines many of the other qualities stated above.

InstallARCHYou'll never need to install it again
"I did and I'm really happy"~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As spotted by securitybreach the install walkthrough is now out of date. The first part of the article is worth a read though as many of the points raised are still relevant.
At least I think the first paragraph is.

Edited by abarbarian, 13 November 2013 - 02:52 PM.

InstallARCHYou'll never need to install it again
"I did and I'm really happy"~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress toward more pain." -George Orwell, 1984

arkOS comes with a custom Linux distribution for the Raspberry Pi, based on Arch Linux. In layman’s terms, it is just like any other operating system that you might have on your home computer (like Windows or Mac OS X), that allows you to run server software.

Quote

With arkOS, you can easily run and maintain a variety of personal cloud services with the push of a button. Using solutions like ownCloud, you can store your calendar, contacts, files, music, photos and more at home, and manage all of these items. Share them only with the people you want to see them. No more “privacy creep” from services like Google or Facebook – with arkOS, you become the master of your own privacy controls.

InstallARCHYou'll never need to install it again
"I did and I'm really happy"~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Overall this is quite a good article. However it does show a lack of understanding on the authors side as to the How and Why of Arch. For example,

Quote

Upon filing a bug, I was told that it would have been easier for me to create the package I wanted than to keep discussing whether it even should be packaged. Of course, making your first package is much harder than installing it, just like making a cake is much harder than eating it. I told him that he should have just added the package like every other distro has, rather than keep coming up with invalid reasons not to, but that wasn’t convincing

The part outlined in red shows a sever lack of understanding about the Arch Way, if you need an explanation as to why I suggest you find a quiet spot and meditate.

InstallARCHYou'll never need to install it again
"I did and I'm really happy"~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yeah I really do not understand why he mentioned Manjaro and Debian as he did not even install either one of those. He mentioned thinking about installing Manjaro but ended up installing real Archlinux instead.

"Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress toward more pain." -George Orwell, 1984

Yeah I really do not understand why he mentioned Manjaro and Debian as he did not even install either one of those. He mentioned thinking about installing Manjaro but ended up installing real Archlinux instead.

Sanity prevailed.

InstallARCHYou'll never need to install it again
"I did and I'm really happy"~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have to agree, i was recommending manjaro but after digging more deep.. I feel that its better to recommend something that points to arch repositories like Antergos but their iso seems to be broken and fails to install a package then installation breaks, anyway, my friend is moving soon from Manjaro to Arch linux.

Also, nice post, i heard about arkos, perhaps i should try it as soon as my rasperry pi hits my home, i really like the idea of hosting my own services, so now the decision is: arch ARM or arkos

"Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress toward more pain." -George Orwell, 1984

I was having a look at the current state of the Arch Linux repositories today in terms of the number of packages each person maintains and thought it interesting to see who did the packaging last year. So here are some numbers!

A big thank you to all the folk who contributed to Arch.

InstallARCHYou'll never need to install it again
"I did and I'm really happy"~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The difficulties I encountered installing and running Manjaro would normally have pushed me to part company with this distro -- I must assume that the rather rapid development cycles and the number of different desktop environments in the fray caused some quality control issues.

I am sure that the author is trying to promote Manjaro and he seems to have put a lot of time and effort into trying out the distro.The opening paragraph was what prompted me to include the article in this thread.
Why on earth would you want to waste time on Manjaro when you can easily set up and use the real thing.

Here are a few quotes from the article that clearly explain why I feel that Manjaro is to be avoided.

Quote

These community editions might be more suitable for less experienced Linux users. The only drawback is a delay in updating the current versions. For instance, the KDE edition was last released in October while the Enlightenment 17, MATE and LXDE editions were updated in September.

The Openbox edition did not run at all on any hardware. Both the Cinnamon and Xfce editions ran on some of my Intel and AMD hardware but not on every one of my six test computers. In some cases on 64-bit computers, the 64-bit DVD failed to boot but the same hardware booted fine with the 32-bit version.

Manjaro displays a note on the log-on screen announcing the default user name and password are "manjaro." I could not get beyond that point on some of the test computers. After I entered "manjaro," the system reported that authentication failed. Having to enter a user name and password just to get into a live session is ridiculous.

Whereas Arch-based Linux distros tend to target more advanced users, Manjaro is trying to bridge that gap to make using it more like Ubuntu and Linux Mint.

If I wanted mint I would suck on a Polo.

InstallARCHYou'll never need to install it again
"I did and I'm really happy"~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am sure that the author is trying to promote Manjaro and he seems to have put a lot of time and effort into trying out the distro.The opening paragraph was what prompted me to include the article in this thread.
Why on earth would you want to waste time on Manjaro when you can easily set up and use the real thing.

Here are a few quotes from the article that clearly explain why I feel that Manjaro is to be avoided.

If I wanted mint I would suck on a Polo.

Manjaro is not Archlinux!! It's like saying Ubuntu is Debian. They use different repositories and just because you base it on a distro, does not make it that distro. I agree with your comment.

"Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress toward more pain." -George Orwell, 1984

"Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress toward more pain." -George Orwell, 1984

"Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress toward more pain." -George Orwell, 1984